Stresstale
by NinjasDontRead
Summary: Welcome to the underground, a place of depressed monsters, all awaiting the day of their doom. As Frisk, a bullied, abused child, falls down into this place of sadness, they find happiness in the strangest places. And somehow, bring happiness to others along the way. (MUTE & NONBINARY FRISK)
1. Prologue (UPDATED, NEW!)

Frisk sniffed loudly, as large tears streamed down their face. Covered in blood, cuts, and bruises, they slowly walked towards the towering mountain.

The sound of distant laughter was there, as it always has been for years.

It wasn't like anyone would care if they died. It's not like anyone would even miss them. Cry, think of them, grieve.

They had heard many stories, rumors even, about Mt. Ebott. That anyone who fell down there never was seen again.

The sound of a place where nobody was there, nobody to inflict physical, or mental pain on them, sounded amazing.

Slowly inching closer to the mountain, they started thinking of the things they would miss.

Frisk shook their head, face red, and eyes dull.

Suddenly at the last second they regretted ever heading towards the intimidating place, as they tripped and fell, awaiting their doom, closer to them than ever before.

Fate had their soul ready to break at it's fingertips, welcoming them with open arms into the afterlife.

But they refused.

Frisk's eyes flew open wide, sitting up straight, taking in their surroundings. Looking down where they had landed, which was on a fairly large patch of wilting golden flowers.

They slowly got up, wincing at their closed up, but fresh wounds. They didn't know whether it was from their fall, or from their daily torture. It really didn't matter to them anyways.

Frisk started walking ahead of them, squinting their eyes trying to adjust them to the darkness. They stuck their hands out in front of them, feeling for anything, coming across what felt like an entrance to somewhere.

With their eyes, slowly getting adjusted, they could see that the entrance was a doorway with no door.

Inching into the next room, cautiously, yet ready for almost anything. What they saw was a bigger golden flower, one that was _alive_ this time. Closing their eyes, braced for whatever pain the flower would put them in.

"Is someone there?..." Frisk heard a small voice call out to them, close by.

Opening their eyes, and looking up, they saw the flower look at them, curiously, but with fear in it's eyes. It was wilting, just like the others, except it mostly looked sad.

They stepped forward a couple steps, watching the flower flinch away as they got closer to it.

"P-please don't hurt me…" The small flower backed away when Frisk came nearer to it.

Not knowing any other way of communication besides sign language, or writing, they shook their head, and got down on their knees and patted the flower on the head.

"I-" The flower soon calmed down. "I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower. Who are you?"

Frisk opened their mouth, pointed to the inside of it, and then shook their head.

"Can you… not talk?" Flowey tilted his head.

Frisk nodded, suddenly having an idea.

Taking their finger, they sat down next to Flowey, and wrote 'Frisk' in the dirt covering the hard rocky cave-like place they were in.

"Frisk, huh? That's a nice name. You're being too nice. That's unusual…" He hesitated, deep in thought.

"You know, maybe you can head to where _she_ is. Maybe you can bring your unusual company with you, and make her smile. I think she would like that." Flowey gestured towards another large entrance, this time a more purple colored one. It looked welcoming, except for the vines growing around it.

They got up then, walking towards the purple entrance.


	2. Seeing Sadness

They got up then, walking towards the purple entrance.

"I'll be here if you want to come visit again… hopefully your wounds heal up quickly, Frisk."

They nodded their head in response, walking into a purple room, with two stairways leading up to the same entrance.

As they approached the door, opening it slowly, they seemed to feel the sensation of being teleported somewhere. They heard a chair rocking, along with the sound of pages flipping.

Frisk, as quietly as they could, peeked into where the sounds were coming from, and saw another monster, with white fur, and dull red eyes, similar to their own dull gray eyes. It was a woman they assumed, looking at her eyes and clothing.

She was reading a book, something about snail recipes, which made Frisk make a face. Sounded disgusting. Not that they could argue though, they only got scraps from dinner that their parents gave them.

Their parents had abused them, by only feeding them at dinner time, slapping them whenever they didn't do as they said, and treating them as what you could call a slave.

The monster's ear twitch a little, which made her look up where Frisk was watching her.

"Who's there?"

They felt as if they needed to come out from where they were hiding, and showed themselves to her.

Her eyes lit up for a slight moment, as if happy for a second.

"And who are you?" She cocked her eyebrow at them.

Frisk looked around for a pen, or something to show the dull-eyed monster their name.

They opened their mouth again, and shook their head.

"You cannot talk, yes?"

They nodded their head.

"I see. Hold on a moment." She left for a moment, leaving Frisk alone in the room she was just in. A tan colored theme, with a fireplace that wasn't lit. The rocking chair in front of it, with the snail recipe book set in the seat. A bookcase was nearby with similar titles, with something that looked like a coat-rack next to it. A table with three chairs was on the other side of the room, with a small fake plant in the middle of it.

"Here. What is your name? Mine is Toriel, I am the caretaker of these ruins. Though in most recent years, my job is meaningless, it is rather boring down here."

Toriel handed them a small yellow notepad and pen, which they wrote down 'Frisk' on it.

"Frisk, you say? What a lovely name." They held out the notepad and pen back to Toriel, but she shook her head.

"No, you should keep it, small one. You may meet others down here, and you will need some way to communicate." She paused for a moment, looking up at the ceiling, then back down at them, while Frisk held the stack of paper.

"Though, if I may ask, why can you not talk? I have had one other similar to you, though they could not hear, but could speak."

They scribbled the word 'mute' down on the same note.

"Ah. So it is like someone took away your voice, yes?"

They nodded their head after a moment of thought.

"Would you like to have a change of clothes and a few bandages? You are wounded badly, though I can never realize these things until later, as these old eyes can't notice much anymore." She sighed.

Frisk nodded their head, smiling up at Toriel.

"Miracles can happen, huh? I haven't seen anyone smile in hundreds of years. Well, alright then. Though the only clothes that might actually fit you are a little older. No one has worn them in years. I hope this is still alright."

They followed Toriel into a pink colored room, covered in dust, and small cobwebs. She walked to a closet, in the corner of the room, and pulled out a green and yellow striped hoodie, missing the hood, with some grey shorts, and scratched cyan sneakers.

"I will go grab the bandages from my room. You may take your time to change. Stay in here. " Toriel walked out of the bedroom, and shut the door behind her.

Frisk looked down at their ripped and bloody clothes, and got changed before she came back with the bandages.

The hoodie was a little big, but it fit fairly well, and the shorts and sneakers fit well.

"Frisk? May I come in? Knock once if I can." They walked over to the door, and knocked their fist once on the door.

Toriel came in, holding a lot of bandages, setting them onto a dresser next to the closet.

"Alright. Show me where you are wounded."


	3. Fiery Love

"Are you feeling better now?" The monster had a flash of worry in their eyes as Frisk shrugged in their oversized hoodie.

She sighed, getting up from where the fallen child was, sitting criss-cross on the carpet.

"I will leave you be then. Come get me if you need anything, okay?" Her dull red eyes seemed to stare through them.

Frisk nodded slowly, as Toriel walked out of the room. Suddenly, they got up, and tugged on her worn, robe.

"What is it?" The gatekeeper turned around, and Frisk wrote, _How can I get home?_ on it.

She suddenly had an angry expression on her face. "You are not allowed to leave the Ruins without my permission." Toriel hesitated, before slightly blushing, which surprised them. "Also, I get lonely. Would you stay with me."

The child hesitated, and looked at the ground, feeling guilty for wanting to leave. They wrote, _I have to find a way home._

Though they were being abused mentally and physically by the others around them, they had decided to keep living after their fall. Falling down this hole into the underground must have some reason to it.

Once they got back up to the surface, they would run away from everyone, and find a new place to live, with friends, and peace between mostly everyone.

Not that they knew where to go.

"Well, you do not have my permission. I forbid you to go out of the Ruins. And if you try to leave, you will have to get past me."

Frisk gulped, but built up self-confidence, and started running after getting behind Toriel, and out the bedroom door, sprinting downstairs.

"Frisk! I do not wish to fight you! Please... Stay?" She called out to them, swiftly following behind them.

They kept running, until they got to the end, with a large door. Pulling as hard as they could, they attempted to open it, but failed.

"Only I can open the door to the outside." She stood in front of Frisk and the door, who stood their ground, yet was sweating. "Fine. If you wish to fight me, stay and fight me. Turn away, and we will live together for as long as we both live. I will be a good caretaker, and will not harm you. Please. I will ask you once more. Stay with me?"

They shook their head, bracing themselves for more harm, in their warm green hoodie.

"Alright then. Try and dodge these attacks, and prove to me you are strong enough on your own."

Toriel shot fire at them, as Frisk decided today would not be the day they would give up. And something decided it with them.

Something glowed around the child, as their form changed into a red, cracked, glowing, bare soul.

Dodging her attacks somehow, with this newfound power, they dodged attacks, stopping for only a few seconds to catch their breath.

"Impressive. Though I have no idea how a human can change into their soul form that easily, I will not question it. I am surprised you have survived this long. Try and dodge this, instead if it is a challenge you want."

Frisk gulped again, and realized they couldn't feel their hands or feet. They could only jump, hover, and look around as of now.

Toriel threw more fiery attacks at Frisk, more harder to dodge, as the two got tired, and they turned back into their regular form, panting hard.

"Giving up?" She said panting as well.

They shook their head, as a tiny translucent cracked heart appeared on their left hand.

 _I am with you_ , it seemed to be communicating with them, through their thoughts.

Suddenly, they found the determination make them get up once more, as they got ready for her next attack.

"Hm. I have never seen anything like that happen before. Interesting. I think with your newfound strength, you can handle things on your own. Good luck, Frisk." Toriel embraced them, eyes no longer dull as they had been.

Frisk smiled, as a single tear fell down their face, they didn't feel like leaving anymore. But alas, they had to move on after what had just happened.

The monster started to walk away, finally turning around only once more to look back at the small child.

"Please do not come back here." The child nodded, sadly. "I love you, small one." She smiled as she walked away back into the small household, as more tears fell from Frisk's face.


	4. Skeleton Snow (FIXED?)

Frisk wiped their runny nose, as it went numb in the coldness around them.

They'd been walking for only a few minutes, but had already seemed to be freezing to death, or getting a really bad cold.

It was silent all around, except for the crunching of the snow and ice under their worn, brown boots.

They only watched their steps as they tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, going at a fairly swift place, in need of some sort of shelter.

Frisk found a large twig blocking their pathway, and shuffled around it, as they heard it crack a few seconds after.

They jumped, and walked faster, hearing a few footsteps gaining behind them.

Almost to the point of running now, they finally found some courage somewhere in their heart, and stopped to turn around.

More footsteps followed, as a skeleton with only one yellow eye, faded and flickering like a dying flame, stepped forward out of the shadows.

They gulped, as they took in the third encountered monster, and glanced down at all the cuts along it's cyan colored sweatshirt, and sneakers.

It also wore what looked like old shorts, but they weren't sure, as their vision wasn't as good as it had always been after the beatings.

"You're a human, right?" It's deep voice made Frisk assume the skeleton to be a guy, but as they always have, they jumped to conclusions that weren't always true.

They nodded their head slowly in response, and swallowed again.

He was smiling, though he looked in pain somehow.

He then stuck out a bony hand, and Frisk flinched, backing up a few small steps.

"I'm Sans." They noticed he had no reaction to what they had just done, and he acted as though he wanted to say something more to them, but stopped himself from doing so.

They then cautiously took a step forward, and shook his hand, quickly pulling away from his grasp a few moments later.

"I'll be honest with ya, kid. You give me a nostalgic feeling somehow, but I dunno why." He shrugged, and Frisk just smiled slowly, their eye subconsciously twitching a few times, as he spoke.

There was silence that followed them both, as the human started shivering so much it looked like they were vibrating.

"C'mon." Sans started to walk in front of them, as they reluctantly followed him down the pathway more, until they suddenly passed through a small bridge, and past some sort of station for keeping watch.

"My brother will know what to do. He always does." They kept walked for what seemed like days, until they came across a deserted village, and Sans suddenly stopped in front of a snow-covered house.

Stopping so quickly, he accidentally knocked Frisk over, resulting in them being even more colder than before.

"Hey, Papyrus? Are you in here?" Sans pushed open the door, and they both went over to sit on a green colored sofa.

The door shut suddenly, making Frisk jump for the second time today, but sooner forgot about the occurrence, and fell asleep a little ways away from the skeleton.

Frisk woke up under a few red blankets, on top of a fairly large sized bed.

"Oh, hello. You're awake." Before them, sat a taller skeleton, who somehow had bruises along his arms and legs.

The child had the assumption that this was Sans' brother, and they found out they were right.

"So, you're the one who had met my brother, Sans, right?" Frisk nodded their head, as they took in their surroundings.

It was just a normal bedroom.

They looked back at him, and looked up and down, to see if he had any cuts along his attire.

It turns out, his red and cyan cape, scarf thing, was the only thing that hadn't been torn to shreds so far.

Frisk gave him a sympathetic look, as to tell him they were sorry.

"Anyways. I'm Papyrus. What is your name?" Since they assumed a lot more people would be asking them, they had just kept a separate sticky note with their name on it.

They gave it to him, as he glanced at it, silently repeating it a few times, before giving it back.

"Sans did say you don't talk much." Papyrus thought for a moment, before asking, "Can you talk?"

Frisk then shook their head, frowning a little.

Suddenly, they took out the notepad from earlier, and scribble down, Are you hurt?

He had to repeat it a few more times in his head, before frowning more than he already was.

"I guess so. I try not to let it get me down." He chuckled a little, which made Frisk get taken by surprise.

They looked at Papyrus' eyes, and saw no signs of dullness, gray, or anything out of the ordinary.

They then asked where Sans had went, and Papyrus answered about someplace named Grillby's.

Frisk then smiled at him, as they grabbed his hand, and ran off to find his brother, somehow not even feeling the cold surrounding them.


	5. Orange & Blue Snow

**AUTHORS NOTE**

Sorry for no new updates in a while! I've been busy, dealing with personal stuff, and I've been stuck on what to write for a while now. Finally, a new idea! Sorry it's somewhat short, I'll try and make them longer from now on haha. For the rest of today, I'm going to try and fix most of my spelling mistakes and such on different chapters on here! If you see any mistakes, just message me, or send a review, I appreciate criticism!

Sans sighed, a mix of sadness and stress.

Being the only brave customer there, he glanced around the abandoned restaurant, jukebox playing in the corner.

Grillby himself was sadly staring at the ground, sighing along with him, - or something that looked like a sigh - and sat down a few seats away, not speaking.

More silence followed, until the jukebox stopped, and the sound of crunching feet slowly got closer to the two.

"What the?..." Sans turned around, just in time to see the human child, and of all people his brother, standing in the doorway.

Papyrus smiled sheepishly. "They dragged me along…" He quickly shifted his fully black eye sockets to the ground.

"Kid, why are you here?" They gave him a sad smile, coming over to sit next to the skeleton, then wrote something down on their notepad.

 _You looked sad._

Silence.

Then, Sans got up, and hugged them, taking Frisk by surprise, but followed with them smiling, seeing his one dwindling yellow-colored eye, was no more, and was replaced with somewhat normal white ovals.

Assuming he was alright now, Frisk hugged tighter, but soon enough let go, afraid they might've been hurting him somehow.

Sans stood back up straight, and looked around the now silent diner, seeming confused now, seeing that Grillby had gone somewhere else.

He probably was scared he assumed.

Sans grinned at the child, then at his brother, and practically ran over to him, just to give him a hug.

Papyrus looked as if he was going to cry.

Frisk smiled happily, and was about to silently leave the two brothers, to move on, when suddenly they got pulled back, in a blue light.

Startled, they frantically tried to escape the blue-colored force, but only moments later, gave up, tired of trying already.

Sans snorted, and moved his hand, also glowing in the blue light, down to the ground, bringing Frisk back on their feet.

Unbalanced, and not ready for the sudden impact with the floor, they fell backwards, cowering in fear as the shorter skeleton approached them.

"Kid, are you okay? I'm sorry for scaring ya." He gave them a worried look, still grinning. He held out his hand to help them get up, and they took it, nodded their head at his apology.

"Look, I didn't mean to scare you to death, but Undyne…" He grasped for the words, looking at the ceiling for a few moments, before speaking again, "I just don't think someone like you is ready for her. No offense, heh."

Frisk nodded their head, taking the hint that this 'Undyne' was probably not the easiest monster to befriend down here.

They gulped, and tilted their head, silently asking the two, _Why did you stop me, though?_

It's not that they thought the two skeleton brothers were bad in any way, it's just they'd have the same fate, no matter if they had any warning, or just waltzed right up to the monster.

Sans turned around, and whispered to his brother, making him have a surprised look on his face.

"Me? But…" Sans nodded his head, grinning a little more brightly now.

Now, Papyrus faced them, looking around the room, obviously scared about what he was about to ask, or say to them.

"Sans has… He has asked me to fight you. He says I could train you to just get a feel for battle? And I assume by the look on your face you don't want to hurt anyone…"

Frisk nodded their head, already making up their mind they'd rather murder themselves than hurt anyone else here, even if they were monsters.

But a friend is a friend, and they wouldn't back down now.

"So, will you allow me to train you? Not that I'm very helpful…"

They nodded their head, short brown hair shaking slightly along with their movements.

"Good luck, kid. He's the best, trust me."

And suddenly, in a wave of blue light, and a feeling of vomiting, they were suddenly, what they assumed teleported, to a snow-covered location, with no footsteps anywhere, whatsoever.

"Let's start then."

And as they turned into what they now called their "soul-form", where their original body seemed to fade away, becoming almost transparent and only their bare soul was showing clearly, they fought with him, both of them out of breath, panting loudly, as a smaller figure watched them from afar, eye glowing blue.


End file.
